The present invention relates to an improved compensator arrangement for the jump or upward drift and the recoil of a firearm when fired.
The disadvantage of known, standard hand guns and small firearms (rifles, automatic rifles, machine guns, pistols and machine pistols) is that after each firing, the front of the barrel moves more or less upward in a "jump" while a more or less unpleasant recoil occurs at the same time.
With individual firings and semi-automatic multiple firings, the target is lost each time from sight and a renewed aiming is time-consuming. This is an even greater disadvantage with fully automatic rifles and pistols, meaning rapid-fire rifles, machine guns and machine pistols, since the firing accuracy worsens with each firing. The aforementioned jump of the barrel is the result of the recoil, caused by the expulsion of combustion gases from the muzzle. If the physical pressure curve of the recoil were to continue in the direction of the barrel and onto the supporting shoulder or, in the case of pistols, to the supporting hand, then an upward movement would be impossible. However, since the pressure curve in the barrel or shoulder support region experiences a downward turn in the direction of the shoulder, an upward movement at the end of the barrel must always occur as a result of the laws of physics. The same is true for pistols since the pressure curve of the pistol barrel also takes a downward turn toward the hand.
The known technical arrangements for counteracting this problem includes bores or slots in the upper frontal area of the barrel or in additional attachments on the front, which serve as jump compensators. However, these arrangements can only have small total cross sections because of the extremely high gas pressure in the barrel front and the front attachments to the barrel, which have only a slightly larger inside diameter, to avoid interfering with the projectile trajectory. Thus, the bores or slots have little effect on the jump.
Deflector or baffle plates that are provided with an opening for projectiles to pass through and are mounted crosswise or transverse in front of the tube muzzles are known for large guns or cannons. However, these do not reduce the jump, but only the tube recoil onto the gun carriage.
Semi-circular, curved blocking surfaces, which are installed in front of the muzzle and are designed to reduce or eliminate the jump are known from U.S. Pat. No. 1,369,085. However, since they are mounted at too short a distance to the projectile trajectory, the firing accuracy is reduced owing to the disturbing forces of the expanding combustion gases. In addition, these blocking surfaces are not long enough and not wide enough to eliminate the jump.
Forward-slanted deflection plates are known from the German Patent Specification DE 38 31 766 C2. However, based on statements therein, these plates only reduce the jump, meaning they do not eliminate it. The reason for this is that the combustion gases can escape all around in front of the deflector plates.
The above-identified U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/170,286, filed Oct. 13, 1998, and corresponding German Patent Specification DE 197 45 097 C2, disclose as a variant, a forward-slanted deflector plate with sheet metal guide plates, mounted on the left and right side between the deflector plate and the barrel muzzle, and forming open areas at the top and bottom. As a result, the jump is eliminated completely and the recoil reduced strongly. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/170,286, likewise discloses a vertically installed or oriented deflector plate, as well guide plates forming open surfaces or areas at the top and bottom. However, the open area at the bottom is partially closed in the front region adjacent the deflection plate by a further plate. As a result, more combustion gases again escape toward the top than toward the bottom. In this case as well, the jump is eliminated completely and the recoil is eliminated to a large degree.
Despite the standard tube-shaped muzzle-flash dampers provided with slots, all military hand-held firearms still have the disadvantage, even with normal daylight, that the location of the gunner can be revealed by the brightness of the flash of fire at the muzzle. This is also true with respect to the above-mentioned arrangement of a vertically installed deflection plate with the partially closed top and bottom areas, wherein the muzzle flash does not exit in a forward direction, but rather exits upwardly and directly behind the deflector plate, even if it is somewhat reduced.
Accordingly, it is the object of the present invention to provide an effective improvement over the prior disclosed embodiments of such compensators and to reduce considerably the visibility of the muzzle flash of fire in addition to eliminating the jump and reducing the recoil.